UPDATE: Austrian based Ghanaian dies in the hands of police in Finland

Additional report concerning the Austrian based Ghanaian who died in the hands of the Finnish police on Saturday 18 November, has been revealed to GH Diaspora.

According to Kwaku Ofori, who is a friend of the deceased and a key witness to the sad incident, earlier report by Ilta Sanomat, a local newspaper in Finland is not accurate. The newspaper, citing police report, claims that the deceased, Samuel Dolphyne, was aggressive and refused to blow into the alcoholometer when his car was stopped by the police. According to Ilta Sanomat, the police handcuffed Dolphyne to keep him calm but that did not stop him. The police then put the deceased to the ground to cuff his legs, where he lost his breath in the process.

Narrating what happened on that faithful night, Ofori, who was in the same car with the deceased, says that after they were stopped by the police, the deceased was asked to blow into the alcoholometer, which he did. The police then asked the deceased to blow into it the second time and he did. The police then asked the deceased how much alcohol he has consumed, of which the deceased said one bottle of beer. The police then turned to Ofori to confirm the deceased’s story. Ofori says he confirmed that he only saw the deceased drink a bottle of beer.

According to Ofori, Dolphyne voluntarily stepped out of the car and approached the police. “I thought he was going to plead with the police”, he says. After a while, Ofori who was still sitting in the car, also stepped down to check why the deceased has kept long.

Ofori recalls Dolphyne lying on the ground with two police men on top of him trying to handcuff him. According to Ofori, the deceased was shouting for help. “He was shouting and calling my name; Ofori, Ofori they are killing me. I can’t breathe. I have asthma.”, he recalls. Ofori, who was about 5 meters from the scene, then shouted at the police to release the deceased but the police did not listen to the cry for help and continued to handcuff the deceased until he went unconscious.

In contrast to Ilta Sanomat’s reports of the deceased aggression towards the police, Ofori says that what he saw on the ground was a dying man fighting for his life with no sign of aggression. Furthermore, Ofori claims that by the time the deceased lost consciousness, only one hand was cuffed and not as reported by Ilta Sanomat.